Guess what Kaitlyn and I did yesterday? We went to the Palace of Auburn Hills where we met up with a bunch of other blogger/writer Moms (most from the Detroit area) and Stacy and Abbey from MomCentral, and then we saw the show Disney on Ice!

MomCentral is working with Feld Entertainment, the company that produces both Disney on Ice and the Ringling Bros. Circus to promote the upcoming Ringling Bros. Circus show at the Palace of Auburn Hills. We met in the very nice Caesars Windsor Club dining area. Jamie from Feld Entertainment had done a terrific job of anticipating keeping all of our children entertained; each table had coloring sheets and crayons, small bottles of bubbles, stickers, and tattoos. And a giant rubber cap to wear that looks like the hair of Bello, star of the Ringling Bros. show “Bellobration“, the one I went to with my husband and kids last month.

I was thrilled to see Stacy, CEO of MomCentral and one of my fellow “Pampers Moms”, at the event. I wish she was my next-door neighbor because whenever we see each other we just start gabbing away like we’ve never been apart. She and her team did a great job of assembling a diverse group of Moms. There were just a few bloggers, myself, Andrea from Mommy’s Martini and Shanda from Mommies United. Here’s me with Andrea on the left and Stacy on the right:

And me with the completely adorable and very hard-working Abbey from MomCentral. We last saw each other at BlogHer this past July:

After we chatted for a while we got our tickets to the show and made our way down to our seats, which were in Row A (thanks Feld Entertainment!). The theme of this Disney on Ice show is that The Incredibles go to Disneyland for vacation, and of course they are trying to hide the fact that they are Super Heroes and just have a good time, but wherever they go in the park, weird things happen that make them think they need to use their powers. They go on the Jungle Cruise, the Frontierland Train, to Space Mountain, and then to Main Street for the parade. Here’s a photo from that part-the Incredibles are on the left of the photo. Dash is in the yellow shirt, Violet is in the purple.

But then Syndrome shows up and kidnaps Mickey and Minnie! Mr. Incredible calls his best friend and partner Frozone for help, and calls Edna Mode to bring them their Super Suits. I did my best to get photos that were lit correctly and not blurry, which wasn’t easy. Here’s one of The Incredible family and Edna after they get their suits:

In case you were wondering, Baby Jack-Jack is played by a large doll, which Mrs. Incredible either holds in her arms or wears in a back carrier. Edna holds him only while Mrs. Incredible is skating around showing off her suit. Here’s one of the “Main Street Parade” part of the show. The kids in the audience were losing their dang minds at the sight of Mickey and Minnie:

If you look closely you can also spot Chip and Dale, Cinderella in her carriage, her Fairy Godmother, Goofy, Ballou from Jungle Book, Snow White (in the back in the red and yellow dress), Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, and Alice herself (just to the right of Ballou). Kaitlyn was fascinated, the only time she even talked during the whole show was to tell me that she needed her Pull Up changed. Here she is holding the Baby Jack-Jack souvenir that she picked. She loves anything that looks like a baby even if it does have a black mask over it’s eyes:

It was a great show and I really appreciate Feld Entertainment and MomCentral arranging for Kaitlyn and I to see it! I’ll be following up this post with details and photos from our trip to see Bellobration, which we saw in Grand Rapids but will be at the Palace of Auburn Hills from Nov. 12-16. If you’re reading this and you are in the Detroit area, you should really go see it.

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I had such a great time on Friday night meeting up with Tiffany, Missy, Aimee, and Andrea, plus Tiffany’s friend Amber was there too. Look how gorgeous we all look!

Andrea’s not in that photo, she got to the party a little late. Because her four and a half year old son wrote out her directions which were a little hard for her to decipher

And Tiffany used to be a bartender at Bennigan’s, so she has this like Blender Mojo when it comes to making Strawberry Daiquiris. With frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple chunks, and a banana to mellow things out. They were thick and frosty and SO GOOD.

We just talked and talked, Andrea showed me how to twist my hair into a bun and told us about how she won Whoorl’s Hair Thursday contest. Missy told me about her job as a Classroom Assistant to a young boy, and Aimee brought her husband and told me about how she started blogging. I had such a good time hanging out with other bloggers and not having to run off to some activity, it was great to just be able to chat.

Missy tried her hardest to make me not leave! It’s so not fair that she lives in Australia which is a zillion miles away. She is such an awesome person to talk to! You wouldn’t think a 41 year old housewife would have anything in common with a 23 year old University Student and childcare worker, but that’s the magic of blogging, it brings people together. I just hope it brings me and Missy together again some day because darn it, she’s adorable and fun and smart, and I’m always going to think of her as my friend.

We started out the evening at Tiffany’s Mom’s house, but then we moved to the house that Tiff and her boyfriend just bought, which was just one neighborhood over. Pizza was ordered (it was really good, too), more wine and other beverages were served (I switched to Diet Coke), and there was Rock Band. I attempted to sing, it was not pretty, but it was fun! And then the battery in my camera died, so I had no photos from then on.

By 11:30 PM I was wearing out, so I said my goodbyes and headed to the Courtyard by Marriott in Ann Arbor to get some sleep. Why did I check into a hotel? Well, I had a crappy day on Friday, and wrote a post about it, and Miss Britt left me a comment saying that it sounded like I could use a night in a hotel. Which seemed like such a good idea! I was only there from about midnight until just after 9 AM, but it seemed more responsible to me that I stay there than drive home tired in the dark for an hour and a half. I woke up Saturday morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and drove home.

Tiffany says she wants to make these meetups a regular thing, so I hopefully will be seeing all these gorgeous gals again really soon! Thanks again for being such a great hostess, Tiff!

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My first book signing wasn’t until noon on Saturday, so I didn’t set an alarm. Dana actually got up and went to yoga! I stayed snuggled into that Heavenly Bed until about 8:30 I guess. Lori called to see what we were doing, so the three of us decided to go get some real breakfast (Friday’s breakfast for me had been a cold bagel). We found a restaurant on Geary called Lefty O’Doul’s that advertised breakfast until 11. We had to wait a few minutes, but soon I was tucking into scrambled eggs, huge slices of crispy bacon, and sourdough pancakes-YUM. Oh and Starbucks coffee, woke me up!

By the time we were done there wasn’t that much time left before my first book signing, so we headed back to the hotel. Oh, but first I popped outside to the designated smoking area (I know, I know) and chatted with Karl, but did I get a photo of me and Karl? Dammit! I did get a photo with Corinna and then who should come up to join us but Robyn Tippins! I met her last year through her work with MyBlogLog, and we made an instant connection. Now she’s a Yahoo! Community Manager. I also snapped a photo with the lovely Corinna, she put a smile on my face every time I ran into her the whole time.

My first book signing was with two ladies who are not only terrific writers, but also fabulous people! I couldn’t believe they were happy to be meeting ME! And the blogs these two have-sheesh. I’m talking about Stephanie Klein, author of “Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp” and “Straight Up and Dirty”, and Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, author of “Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay” and “Naptime Is The New Happy Hour”. They were both so enthusiastic about signing books and had the biggest smiles, it really made my morning!

In between signings someone came rushing up to me calling my name, it was Velma! She was so sweet and we posed for a quick photo together. And then Maggie and Evany arrived, EARLY even, and I went a little fangirl on Maggie, I can’t help it! She’s got so many amazing blogs and she’s so pretty, last year I probably would have been terrified to even look at her. But this year, keeping with my personal theme of fearlessness, I said Hi Maggie! I’m Elizabeth, and she hugged me! See? Fangirl. She introduced me to Evany, who has a Flickr photoset of her wearing the most amazing outfits. Maggie’s book is “No One Cares What You Had For Lunch” and Evany’s is “The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide”, which is a really clever look at different sleeping positions that couples get into. It was great to meet both of them!

That was a big day for me as far as blogger meetups, I posed for photos with Sizzle, Liz from Mom-101, Cathy from Mayberry Mom (whose daughter had a burst appendix and I didn’t even know about it, I’m so sorry, Cathy!), Rhi (who is adorably scrumptious!), and Christine from From Dates to Diapers.

I had a break after the second set of book signings, and Elisa had insisted I go to a session, so I went with Lori to, um, something about Monetization without Advertising? By the time we got there the room was packed, so we had to sit way in the back. I sat down, and when my body realized it was going to get to stop moving for a minute, I was immediately overcome with exhaustion. Good thing I was in the back, because I said goodbye to Lori, went up to my room, set the alarm for an hour later, crawled into the Heavenly Bed and fell instantly asleep. Best. Nap. EVER.

I woke up feeling much better, freshened up, and headed downstairs for the last book signings, with the lovely Devra and Aviva, authors of “Mommy Guilt: Learn to Worry Less, Focus on What Matters Most, and Raise Happier Kids”, and Jennette Fulda, author of “Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir”. It seemed like their signing went by really fast! I snuck into the Closing Keynote, Elisa was interviewing Stephanie Klein and Heather Armstrong about what it’s like to live as if you are in the Truman Show with people watching and commenting on your every move. It makes me so sad that there are HATE SITES devoted to these two women, who did nothing to deserve any hatred from anyone. What is wrong with people?

You may have heard there was a moment of drama in the Keynote, I’m not going to address it here. I’ve learned my lesson about posting anything about blog drama, so please don’t ask. After that I went back to my room to change my clothes for the reception at Macy’s. It was crazy, they had sections of Macy’s closed just for us, we started out in the HANDBAG department which just about killed me, so close to all those Coach purses and not able to buy one. There was champagne (wine?) and a totebag from Ooops! with an 11% off coupon good just for that day in Macy’s-wouldn’t have helped me afford anything. From there we went up a floor to shoes, where there were little chinese food containers with cold noodles, some kind of little nacho-like thing, and shots of the new Vivanno drinks at Starbucks-banana chocolate, yum!

After that was the LINGERIE department, I’m sure all the guy bloggers really appreciated that. There were these little glasses with this white drink in it, someone handed me one and said I was supposed to drink it in one shot, so I did. It was CHIPOTLE PEPPER VODKA and White Chocolate Liqueur! Damn, it burned all the way down. Thanks a LOT, whoever that was. LOL There were also these trays of cookies, soft and spongy on the outside with fillings, one was purple and I think it was lavender flavored, the other was white and I think vanilla. Kind of weird tasting. That floor was sponsored by KY, who handed out little tubes of KY Intrigue lube, which was definitely the most adult party favor I got that whole weekend.

Our final stop was the furniture department, where there was a DJ and a table with the new book “Sleep Is For The Weak” on sale, and all the bloggers who contributed to it were there signing books. At $10 each it was very affordable. I can’t find my copy at the moment since it’s buried in a pile of stuff I still have to put away, but I know I got it signed by Rita, Alice, Eden, Liz, Kristen, Amy, Tracey, and Susan.

Whew! Now, I’m headed to Cincinnati tomorrow until late Tuesday night, so I might not be able to finish my BlogHer recap until next week. But thanks for reading!

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I can’t believe what a hard time I’m having writing about BlogHer! It’s like, I don’t want to say too little, but I don’t know how much to say, so I’m just sort of stuck! I arrived last Thursday just in time to hop on a shuttle bus to the Kirtsy/Alltop party, and while waiting for the bus, I had a chance to hug Julie and Kristen from Parent Bloggers Network, Liz from Cool Mom Picks (Kristen is CMP too), and Krisco from Crib Ceiling. I ran into Gwendomama in the lobby, she’s a PBN blogger, and my roommates were Anne and Dana who reviews at Dana Reviews. When I got to the room, I found Lori waiting for us, she has a bunch of great blogs including Cowgirl Critiques. She is so cute and she just jumped right in to all the BlogHer craziness! I was so glad she came!

On the shuttle bus, I chatted with Dana, Lori, Jennster (she just gets hotter every year), Kristie from SlackerMommy, and Corinna from A Celebration of Curves, who has cleavage like you wouldn’t believe! And then, I start chatting with the blogger sitting across from me, and she goes “Elizabeth! It’s MICHELLE LAMAR!” Michelle blogs at White Trash Mom and was one of “my” authors in the BlogHer Bookstore! I just wanted to pack her in my suitcase and bring her home, she was so sweet and fun.

Despite our shuttle bus driver having NO CLUE how to actually get to the party, we arrived at Guy Kawasaki’s house in Atherton to find all the Kirtsy ladies, plus so many other wonderful bloggers whose sites are listed on Alltop. There was a photo area where you could dress up in costumes and get your photo taken, a huge bowl of paella, fancy wine, and my favorite, plastic cups of mashed potatoes with barbecued chicken on top-yum! I was so happy to see Gabrielle from Kirtsy again, she was at the Disney event I went to in April. I met Laurie from Kirtsy at last year’s BlogHer too.

I ran into BOSSY, big smooches for her, and Stephanie from Adventures in Babywearing and Stephanie from Ladybug and her Blogging Mama, who also went to the Disney event. I talked to Kristen from Mommy Needs a Cocktail but DIDN’T get a photo with her, darn it! I hugged Casey from Moosh in Indy about half a dozen times, plus shook hands a little nervously with Eden from Fussy, Alice from Finslippy, and Melissa from Suburban Bliss. I don’t know what I was so nervous about, they are all quite lovely and friendly.

I gave a big hug to Christina from A Mommy Story, and squealed a bit when I met Wendy from Sparkplugging! After picking up buttons that read “Kirtsy, we bring bitches together” (ha!) and debating over the one that read “I heart Guy K” or the one with Guy’s face on it (I went for the face one), and grabbing a ginormous swag bag (cute red totebag from Scholastic positively STUFFED with swag) and a black tee that reads “I Write For Me”, we boarded the shuttle back to the hotel. Fortunately, that driver knew where he was going, plus rush hour was over.

We got back to the hotel just as the MomCentral “First Drink on Us” party was wrapping up, and after hugging the heck out of the adorable Abbey, I gratefully accepted a Cosmo and a totebag with three new hardback books I can’t wait to read. I also met Kara and Stacy from MomCentral, and let me tell you, they are all the nicest people you could ever want to work with. Then I bumped into Anne-Marie Nichols, who I first met at BlogHer 06 when I knew absolutely no one and asked if I could sit with her at breakfast. And here we are 2 years later!

Okay, so let’s see, where are we? That’s the second party of the night, TWO MORE parties to go! We took a cab over to Rye bar even though it was only down the street and around the corner because we hadn’t been there long enough to get the lay of the land, so to speak, so we didn’t realize just how close to the hotel it was. Rye bar was the site of the party hosted by The Experience Project, where I happily greeted Armen and Julio, who I first met last year. They are still so awesome and so enthusiastic (and rightfully so) about their website. I sipped a Cosmo, picked up a cute gift bag, snapped some photos, and then it was time for the FOURTH party of the night, the People’s Party!

Hosted by a bevy of amazing bloggers, the People’s Party was where I met Loralee from Loralee’s Looney Tunes, Leah Peah, Mr. Lady from Whiskey in my Sippy Cup, and ran into my blog pals Liz from This Full House, Shannon from PHAT Mommy, Kerry from Crunchy Carpets, Amber from Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck, and Shannon from Believer in Balance. I also met Mrs. Flinger (finally!) and found Charlene, formerly of Maya’s Mom, who now runs Shine, the parenting site for Yahoo!. AND, I found James and Zameer from BabySpot, who are like big huggable teddy bears and I am so happy to be writing their weekly newsletter! Thanks for the job, guys!

Oh, and someone, I totally cannot remember WHO, but I know she’s a relatively new blogger and it was her first BlogHerCon, bought me a drink at the party. THANK YOU, whomever you were! Turns out, four Cosmos is my limit, and after that, I needed to go to BED. Unfortunately for my roommates, I fell right asleep while they were still up, and I started TALKING IN MY SLEEP. According to Dana I said something like “no, I already did that”-ha! And then I tried to SPOON Dana, but it’s not my fault, we slept together last year too, and I’m just so darn comfortable with her! LOL Sorry sweetie!

And THAT was Thursday at BlogHer. Turns out a 41 year old out of shape mother of three CAN go to four parties in one night! Just not more than once a year. Tomorrow? I’ll recap Friday!

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So, it’s more than a little disconcerting to have other bloggers say, upon meeting me, that they miss the purple flower I used to have in my header! Here I thought I was keeping it fresh, and instead it turns out I’ve just been confusing the hell out of people who no longer can tell right away that they are visiting Table for Five. I’m so sorry!

Which means I am now attempting to get the purple flower back in my header, as well as a photo of myself, because I also found out that not everyone who reads this blog follows me on Twitter, so they don’t know what I look like! Again, so sorry!

My brain is still a bit discombobulated, so if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to work a bit on emails and some other things for a while, then I’ll be back with a BlogHer recap of some of the finer moments of the trip. It will probably take me the rest of the week just to remember everything that happened!

And then on Monday and Tuesday of next week, I’ll be in Cincinnati at another blogging event-a PR firm that represents Pampers is sending me and some other fine bloggers to Proctor & Gamble headquarters! I can’t wait to tell the Pampers people how their diapers and wipes are the only ones we use, plus I hope I can talk to P&G about their new “Aquaporins” line of products. Should be fun!

So my dears, I’ll be back soon with all the BlogHer talk you can stand. Leave me a comment, tell me what’s going on with you!

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